June 23, 2006— Just being in the same room as peanuts can send Liam Park into a violent allergy attack. And yet, the 4-year-old from Charlotte, N.C., intentionally eats peanut flour every day.

Liam is part of a potentially groundbreaking study at Duke Medical Center aimed at finding out whether children with peanut allergies can be desensitized to peanuts and eventually cured of their ailment altogether.

"Our goals in treatment are the desensitization, to make them less sensitive and also to make their peanut allergy go away," said Dr. Wesley Burks, chief of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology at Duke Medical Center.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Burks stresses that parents should not try this at home on their own. In his study, the peanut flour is administered under tight medical supervision, and patients are observed for hours afterwards.

Thank you for posting this article, Karen, I added it to my "Peanu allergyt" file.

_________________15 year old - asthmatic, allergic to cats, dogs, horses, waiting to be "officially" diagnosed for anaphylaxis
12 year old - asthmatic, allergic to tree pollen and mold, OAS
Husband - Allergic to amoxycillin
Self - Allergic to housework only

that's very interesting.. and very encouraging with any luck everything goes as planned

along this line i have a question for you parents. i had a little girl come up to my canteen stand a while ago, and our brownies have nuts in them, and as always i ask "is it an allergy" and she goes no not anymore! and i look and wait for the mother and she's like oh yeah she used to have a peanut allergy, but she's fine now and we just pick out the nuts cause she never developed a taste for them...

now the question... if your child's allergy suddenly reversed itself (i know that other allergies can i assume that food ones can too) would you feel comfortable allowing them to have products which have the former allergen in it?

My kids have outgrown a few of their allergies and it does take time to get used to the idea of them eating the food. You're always looking for a reaction at the start and checking every little runny nose and sneeze. My youngest outgrew both wheat and barley after 3+ years, for example. He eats all kinds of things with wheat and barley in them now, and it seems normal. But it did take some time.

But these haven't been his severe allergies. My oldest is a candidate for an oral food challenge for peanuts, based on his skin/blood test results, but he doesn't want to do it yet (which we are respecting). If he ever does 'outgrow' peanuts, that will really take some adjusting to. Two separate friends of mine whose kids have outgrown peanuts have been told to have their child continue to wear the EpiPen for at least a year to make sure that there isn't another reaction. It's not always definitive that the allergy has been outgrown, obviously.

One of these friends has found that it's near impossible to get her child to eat peanuts, while the other has had no problem. I would probably continue to watch really carefully and carry the EpiPen for a good long while. Would I ever be comfortable watching my kids eat peanuts or nuts or dairy if they outgrow it? I really don't know... I guess I would get used to it. Eventually.

But I do know that people have outgrown even very severe allergies, so I guess you have to have some faith at some point.

How about the rest of you? Anyone outgrown a severe allergy - or had a child outgrow it? How does it feel to watch them eat it?

I've never outgrown an allergy....but if, say, my allergies magically disappeared tomorrow, I would be fine with eating soy, egg. and all the rest...except for peanuts or tree nuts which I have a strong aversion too.. Wait...actually, I'd probably avoid soy milk too....although I'd be willing to eat any type of soy that didn't have the soy milk taste (which to me is pretty revolting).

This study is really interesting. I have to say that I'm tempted to try it at home with things that I'm not severely severely allergic to. I'd mention it to my allergist first, however...I'd like to know whether the researchers think this will only work on children whose immune systems are still developing? or whether there is hope for allergic adults too.

Karen, I have a friend who outgrew a tree nut allergy - she was at risk of anaphylaxis and had experienced a couple of pretty bad reactions. She is supposed eat nuts to keep up the sensitization, but doesn't do it nearly as often as she should.

My friend still has her husband, the phone and her Epi at the ready when she does eat a few nuts. She knows this is mostly psychological but does find it hard to get past the fear. Still, while she doesn't exactly "enjoy" those nuts, she is getting a little more relaxed eating them while in her state of emerg. readiness. I don't ever expect to see her eating nuts or nut garnished food in public.

Don't try this experiment on your own, warns lead researcher Dr. A. Wesley Burks of Duke University Medical Center. Children in the study are closely monitored for the real risk of life-threatening reactions.

But if the work pans out -- and larger studies are beginning -- it would be a major advance in the quest to at least reduce severe food allergies that trigger 30,000 emergency-room visits and kill 150 people a year [in the U.S.].

"I really think in five years there's going to be a treatment available for kids with food allergy," says Burks.

We are seriously considering doing the study. I called Dr. Burks and he said he would be willing to enroll my son. I am trying to get a face to face meeting with him right now to discuss the advantages and disadvantages. My son is still very young so I don't want to subject him to something that he may not tolerate well at his age. I asked Dr. Burks if age matters (that this trial would work better if your younger than older) his response was that this is one of his hypotheses (younger = better outcome) but he has no data at this point to back it up. Plus how do you quantify younger? Under 10 or under 5, etc?

If after talking to him we find out his success rates are low (say 2 or 3 out of 10) we probably won't do it. But if they are high (7+ out of 10) we will probably go with it.

I will keep everyone up to date on what I find out and what our decision might be.....

_________________2.5 year old: allergic to wheat, dairy, egg, peanut, oat, turkey, and cats
5 year old: no known allergies
Husband no known allergies
Me allergy to morphine only

I'm also feeling excited about this research (cautiously excited). Thank you for sending along the link to the the peanutallergy.com message board - it was really something to read Melissa's story. When we see our son's allergist next month (Dr. Waserman - past president of AAIA, and one of the allergists with Allergic Living's "Ask the Allergist" section), I would like to talk to her about how she feels about this clinical trial. Dare we begin to hope for a cure? ... or at least begin to hope for reducing the risk of living with life-threatening food allergies.

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